The plan remains the same, and the new tube that Londoners have been waiting for for years will open in the first half of this year; officials have also released a large wave of photos of the scene.
On 18 January 2022, Transport for London (TfL), which operates London's new Underground, the Elizabeth Line (also known as the Queen's Line, Crossrail), issued an official notice:
The Elizabeth Line will officially open the downtown section between Paddington and Abbey Wood in the first half of this year (2022) as originally planned.
After the official announcement of the TFL, a number of British media also followed up the news, and the headlines were "Elizabeth Line Will Be Opened to Traffic "As Originally Planned" in the First Half of 2022".
According to the latest announcement, after the opening of the Elizabeth Line, there will be 12 trains per hour, which is equivalent to a 5-minute departure.
In terms of fares, Districts 1 to 6 of the Elizabeth Line are still charged according to the price of the original Oyster Metro Card.
Elizabeth Line site map
Transport for London (TFL) says 2022 will be a landmark year for the London Underground.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also said: "The opening of this line is the best symbol of London's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, it will benefit millions of people and support hundreds of thousands of new housing and jobs. ”
At the same time as the latest official announcement, TFL also released a large wave of live photos about the Queen's Line, which we will take a sneak peek at below:
It is worth mentioning that the Queen's Line was originally scheduled to open in 2018, but the actual opening year (2022) was a full year later than planned, almost 1,000 days, and the cost soared from the initial £14.8 billion to nearly £19 billion, exceeding the budget by £4 billion.
Fortunately, the Queen's Line is finally set to open in the first half of this year, and officials say the line will start operating before June this year.
Transport for London also said the Elizabeth Line would earn more than £1 billion a year when it opened, while the line had broader economic benefits for London.
Transport for London is currently conducting final safety tests on the middle section of the Queen's Line (Paddington to Abbey Wood) to ensure the safety and reliability of the line, as well as a final test of the timetable.
Over the next month or two, Transport for London will conduct 150 exercises to ensure staff can respond to a variety of emergencies, including customer discomfort and signal failures.
The most complex exercises will also include emergency evacuations inside and at stations, with more than thousands of staff and volunteers participating.
After this, the Queen Line will undergo a period of "shadow run" at which there will be no passengers on the metro.
The Past and Present Lives of the Queen's Line
The Elizabeth Line, currently the largest infrastructure project in Europe, started in 2009 with a total length of 136 kilometres, spanning east and west London.
The Elizabeth Line takes its name from Transport For London's recognition of the Queen, and in recognition of the Queen's contribution to the UK, Crossrail was renamed the Elizabeth Line, also known as the Queen's Line, in 2016.
The Elizabeth Line, though faster, still charges according to metro fares
The Elizabeth Line will revolutionize the way Londoners travel when fully open, with the time to cross London being reduced to 45 minutes and heathrow airport to the City of London in just 34 minutes.
The Elizabeth Line is currently open to traffic, including the west of the Paddington to Heathrow airport section and the east of the Liverpool Street to Schenfield line.
The Section of Crossrail paddington to Heathrow Airport has been opened
Crossrail train at Paddington Station
The western section of the Queen's Line has been fully opened to traffic
It can be seen that the Queen Line is opened in three phases, and this time it is mainly the middle urban section that is scheduled to open to traffic in the first half of this year.
Route Map of the Queen's Line Downtown Section:
It is worth noting that the equally important West Section of the Queen's Line (Phase II), paddington to Heathrow, was opened to traffic on 10 August 2020.
The specific route map of the western section is as follows:
Beginning August 10, 2020, the paddington to Heathrow airport section has been replaced by a new Purple Queen Line train, model 345 (Class 345 Crossrail train), produced by Bombardier.
The western section of the Queen's Line stops along the Acton Main Line, West Ealing, Southall and other important stops.
After the capacity increase, the western section will also become 12 times per hour, and the other stops on the line are as follows.
Here's a live shot of the Queen's Line we took:
Why is the middle section of the Queen Line built so slowly?
Judging from the opening timetable and construction period, after the opening of the eastern and western sections, only the middle section of the Queen Line is left waiting for the official opening of the first half of this year.
From the perspective of construction period, the urban section itself, including railways, stations, etc., has been nearly 100% completed, and now it is mainly doing the final opening and signal testing.
The reason for the slow pace of construction is mainly because the urban section is built underground and there is no large-scale road closure.
The difficulty of signaling is also very high, because to integrate the different signal systems of 3 generations, there were previous reader comments that are equivalent to running in the system at the same time and are seamlessly connected to the particularly old DOS and the latest Windows.
It is worth mentioning that the Queen's Line has previously released aerial photographs of the top ten new sites, and the top ten new sites have basically been fully completed.
The Queen's Line is now basically ready, waiting for the final test to be completed and opened to traffic in the first half of this year.
*Finally attached to the Queen Line several key data:
- First: The Elizabeth Line is currently the largest infrastructure project in Europe
- 10,000: 10,000 people working on this project at the same time during peak hours
- 100 million: The Elizabeth Line has spent more than 100 million hours of work
- 10%: The Elizabeth Line could increase London's existing public transport capacity by 10% and carry 15 million more people
- 200 million: The Elizabeth Line will receive at least 200 million visitors a year
- 118 km: Distance of the Elizabeth Line from West London to East London
- 41 stations: The Elizabeth Line will build 10 new stations and upgrade 31 of its original stations
- £14.8 billion + £4 billion: The latest cost of the Elizabeth Line is the largest and most expensive infrastructure project in Europe during the period.